Re: Looking for New Monitoring Company -- Problem with Next Alarm

[tourman <robercampbell@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Apr 28, 11:56=A0am, JoeRaisin <joeraisin2...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 4/28/2012 9:12 AM, tourman wrote:
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> > On Apr 27, 6:50 pm, Jack<country...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> =A0wrote:
> >> I have been a satisfied Nextalarm customer for several years, but just
> >> recently they have told me that false alarms for panic alerts have to =
be
> >> dispatched immediately to the police. This has caused me to have to pa=
y
> >> over the past two months a total of 328.00 to my local city because of
> >> false alarms.
>
> >> The most frequent false alarm I have is when the keyfob is accidentall=
y
> >> actuated and this creates a panic alert. Up to 6 months ago, they woul=
d
> >> call my house first to confirm it was a false alarm and that would be
> >> the end of it. No police would be dispatched. However, during the past=
 6
> >> months I have had 3 false alarms and the city only gives you two false
> >> alarms and anything over two will generate a 100.00 charge.
>
> >> Just this Monday on my way out the door with my two suitcases, I
> >> accidentally hit my keyfob panic button and got a call within 30 secon=
ds
> >> from Nextalarm. My wife confirmed that it was a false alarm and that
> >> there was no need to dispatch the police. Well 5 minutes later the
> >> police are rolling up to my address and I had to explain that it was a
> >> false alarm. Two days later I get a letter from the city for another
> >> 100.00.
>
> >> I obviously can't continue with this existing setup. My contact sheet
> >> specifically states to call my house number, my wife's cell and then m=
y
> >> cell phone number BEFORE any police are dispatched and this setup has
> >> worked successfully for the past several years. However, Nextalarm say=
s
> >> their policy has been changed to mandate contacting the police for any
> >> panic alarms, regardless to whether it was a false alarm.
>
> >> The guy I've been working with wants to convert my panic alarm signals
> >> to a burglar type and this may get around the mandate of contacting th=
e
> >> police. Can someone recommend a monitoring company for the Ademco Lynx=
-R
> >> panel that will allow my panic alarms to be triaged (by calling my
> >> contact list) BEFORE the police department is called? I have a phone
> >> line directly connected to the panel.
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> > RHC: Sir, it seems to me rather than abandoning your existing dealer,
> > why don't you work with him further to solve the problem. There is
> > something basically wrong with a panic pendant design wise that can be
> > so easily triggered. I don't know the particular Ademco panic device
> > in question, but some other makes I am familiar with are shielded from
> > accidental activation, and most devices take a 3 second push of the
> > button in order to activate - pretty hard to do accidentally.
>
> > As I know it, most monitoring companies take pretty much the same
> > approach to manual panic alarms; these can be life threatening
> > situations and and are normally handled as such. Why do you wish to
> > totally abandon this company when the problem is in the panic alarm,
> > not the response, and perhaps not the alarm company either.
>
> > Don't " throw the baby out with the bathwater" so to speak; fix the
> > problem !!
>
> I was thinking the same thing, in regards to the panic button.
>
> Could be an older design and he just needs to get a newer fob.
>
> Back in my Marine days, I was stationed for a while at a reserve center
> that had an armory within it. =A0The armorer wore a panic button on his
> belt that was a little larger than a pack of cigarettes and had a button
> that stuck out almost half an inch.
>
> No delay and it didn't take much to activate it.
>
> Since we were an anti-tank unit we had, in addition the the TOW missile
> launchers, M2 50 caliber machine guns, MK-19 automatic grenade launchers
> (my favorite weapon, ever) a butt load of M-16's and quite a few 9mm
> hand guns. =A0When the panic was bumped accidentally (about 4 time in the
> three years I was there) we would find ourselves surrounded by at least
> a dozen police cars including locals, county and state. =A0For obvious
> reasons the cops had a pucker factor of 12 out of 10 when they rolled up
> and as it was a silent panic we usually didn't know they were out there
> until someone went outside. =A0We all had to go out and lay down until
> they could verify who we were and that it wasn't the local chapter of
> the Latin Kings who were about to unleash holy hell upon the good folks
> of Springfield, MA.
>
> Just thought I'd relate one of my favorite "panic button" stories.

RHC: Yeah, that's got to rate right up there with the best....:))

There are several solutions to this gentleman's problem. The obvious
is just that...obvious...get a different kind of panic button. Or the
client could get a panic in a pendant / non pendant format, that is
coupled to a specific new zone indicating a panic situation but with
special instructions at the station. This would get around his
station's natural inclination to treat panics as such (legitimately,
since there are obvious liabilities here...), yet give the customer
some control over the instructions on response to that specific panic
Zone.

I have one client with MS and she can barely reach the medical panic
around her neck (it goes to wireless Zone 9 on a DSC 1616). But when
she does trigger it, the station has specific and detailed
instructions not to call but to dispatch an ambulance, who know in
advance what the problem might be, since this has all been set up with
station.

I'm a bit surprised his alarmco didn't take a more proactive approach
to handling what is really a fairly simply problem.